MovieChat Forums > The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011) Discussion > I had to give up, the narration is so ba...

I had to give up, the narration is so bad


I really looked forward to watching this, but 30 minutes in, gave up. He should re-release this with a new narrator. Was there nobody to tell him that he was ruining his own film?

I guess it's like looking at clouds. You see one thing and I see another. Peace.

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Well, he didn't hire a fact checker (the series is full of historical howlers as he twists history like a pretzel to validate his prejudices), so I don't think he'd have been interested in anyone contradicting him on the technical side either.


"Security - release the badgers."

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I had to get up and splash water on my face. The guy is the cinematic equivalent of a bottle of Ambien taken all at once.





It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me

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I also had to give up about the same time. I doubt that I can stand 15 episodes of that sing-song drone of his.

Promise her anything, but give her a Pez!

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"I doubt that I can stand 15 episodes of that sing-song drone of his."

Thank you!

I've been looking for the words to describe his horrid "narration", and prior to this the best I could come up with was "mumbling half-whisper", but "sing-song drone" is much more accurate.

How 'bout if we combine the two: his mumbling sing-song droning half-whisper. Works for me!

______________________________

Adversity does not build character. It *reveals* it.

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I don't know how but I made it an hour. I was very curious about this too, especially when I found out it was in 13 parts but I definitely won't be watching the other parts.

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I really enjoyed the visuals? Many of the short clips were fascinating? I'll
probably watch at least some of the later episodes, too? But maybe I'll do it
with the sound off? Because, while I don't mind the accent at all? His habit
of ending every sentence with that upward inflection is truly maddening?




I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!

Hewwo.

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You took the words literally out of my mouth, tmaj48? You did? You really did? :-D

"It's too late... too late. There's no bringing her back.

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That's it exactly? I came here after watching about half an hour, wondering if I were alone in being driven to distraction by this upward inflection at the end? It's like Valley Speak being channeled through an Irishman?

I'm not sure how much longer I can make it. It's really interesting and looks great visually but...?

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Glad I'm not the only one driven to switch this thing off because of the sing-song, valley-girl-with-an-Irish-accent narration! I've never listened to anything quite so annoying. I only made it into the 2nd episode, so I didn't see enough to identify the errors that others have reported here on IMDB. If these are true, it only adds insult to injury. I do like the idea of switching off the sound an reading the captions instead .....if only to see clips of some very early films.

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I am so glad I wasn't the only one. I was excited about seeing this but the narrator ruined the whole thing for me. That annoying upward inflection at the end of every sentence drove me nuts.

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I made it 5 minutes... By FAR the worst narrator voice I've ever heard. Which is a shame because I was excited to watch this series. Now I just have to pass on this one, there's no way I can watch an entire episode, let alone 15!

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I can handle his voice (and boy it is annoyning) but it is his pompous air,his obvious and outrageous prejudices, and endless howlers about film history that turn me off.
I'll Teach You To Laugh At Something's That's Funny
Homer Simpson

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[deleted]

Brilliant posts from everyone. I only made it thirteen minutes through episode one and I had to turn it off. Right now I'm watching it at double-speed, so the horrid narration is 50% less irritating.  And parisel, you are so right...I can't figure out why no one told this man that he was ruining his project with his horrible narration. I guess his ego is so over-inflated that he wouldn't have listened to anyone if they did speak up... 

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I came here to see if I were the only one who had a problem with the narration. I figured I was seeing as this is rated so highly. I was fairly excited to see this pop up as a suggestion on Netflix and figured I'd spend the night watching a good documentary about film history, but nope!

I made it about ten minutes but only because I got up to do a few things. I'm not even gonna bother to check to see who narrated this mess. How can one sound boring yet haughty at the same time?

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